


Meeting You Again (for the first time)

by teacuphuman



Series: Bingo Card 2017 [4]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Amnesia, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 04:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11570079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacuphuman/pseuds/teacuphuman
Summary: Eames doesn't remember Arthur, but he'd like to get to know him.





	Meeting You Again (for the first time)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Amnesia square on my Kink/Trope Bingo card.
> 
> Thanks to katy_the_reader for the beta!

Arthur feels like he doesn’t breathe until Eames opens his eyes. It hadn’t been a long fall, but landing on one’s head tended to have serious consequences, even from short distances. Even when your head is as hard as Eames’.

 

Eames lets out a long breath, squinting into the dim of the room. He looks around, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline when his gaze lands on Arthur, relieved, but still wound up in the corner.

 

“Please tell me you’re real,” he mutters, wincing at the volume of his own voice.

 

Arthur frowns and scoots forward on the chair. “Of course I’m real.”

 

“Good,” Eames laughs weakly. “Because it would just be like death to come for me dressed as the most attractive man I’ve ever seen.”

 

“Death isn’t coming for you, stop being dramatic,” Arthur huffs, secretly pleased that Eames is already back to his smarmy self.

 

Eames rolls onto his side with a muffled groan, waving Arthur off when he moves to stand. “What’s your name, darling?”

 

“That’s not funny, Eames.”

 

“You seem to know mine, reciprocation seems fair, doesn’t it? And you should know that I am always fair. In love, and in war.” Eames leers at him, raking his unsteady eyes over Arthur’s body.

 

“That is a bold-faced lie, and you know it. You’re the most selfish person I’ve ever slept with,” Arthur tells him.

 

Eames looks shocked for a moment, but it soon smooths out into casual interest. “Darling, if we’d slept together, there’s no way I’d have forgotten.”

 

“Still not funny,” Arthur says.

 

“I promise I’m not trying to be, I really have no idea who you are.” 

 

“Really?” Arthur says, unimpressed. “Then how did you get here?”

 

Eames pauses, his brow crinkling. “I...did something foolish?” he ventures.

 

Arthur snorts. “That could be any day.”

 

“All right, no need to be snitty, although, you do look lovely when you’re all scowly.”

 

“Eames,” Arthur says, tersely. 

 

“Why don’t you just tell me, pet? Since you seem to enjoy feeling superior.” Eames looks at him with a false innocence.

 

“Fine, you were rescuing a kitten from a tree and you fell off a ladder.”

 

Eames purses his lips. “I don’t know how I know you’re lying, but you are. I don’t rescue kittens from trees.”

 

“Well, it wasn’t a real kitten. It was one of those creepy fake stuffed kittens that ‘breathes’.” Arthur says with shudder.

 

“Right,” Eames says doubtfully. “And how did it end up in the tree?”

 

“I threw it there,” Arthur says, tugging on his cuffs and avoiding Eames’ stare.

 

“Because?”

 

“Because when I told you you couldn’t get a kitten, I meant any and all kinds of kittens. Including creepy, breathing, fake ones,” Arthur spits, his voice rising because while their argument seemed normal at the time, recounting it makes him sound like a maniac.

 

Eames presses his lips together, looking an awful lot like he’s stifling a laugh. “And I let you make my pet buying decisions because we’re…”

 

“You tell me.”

 

“Hmm, well, I have no doubt that we’ve known each other a while, or else you’d have dropped me at the door and driven off, you seem like the type. Flatmates, perhaps, because any animal I may buy affects you, but there’s no way I didn’t take one look at you and not try to get in your sinfully tight trousers, so boyfriends?” he asks hopefully.

 

“We don’t have to be boyfriends to have slept together,” Arthur points out.

 

“True, but darling, I wasn’t kidding when I said you’re the most attractive man I’ve ever seen. In no world would I have you and then let you go.”

 

He says it with such sincerity that Arthur flushes and clears his throat. “You keep calling me ‘darling’.” 

 

“I do, don’t I? You don’t seem offended, so I suppose I call you that a lot.”

 

“Enough for me to notice, anyway.”

 

Eames grins. “Marry me.”

 

Arthur stares at him in shock. “What?”

 

“You won’t tell me what we are to each other, or even your name,” Eames clicks his tongue in reprimand. “But I already know you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I want to lock you down right now before I remember why I don’t deserve you.”

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Arthur says, but he can feel the flush rising from beneath his collar. “For all you know, we could be enemies. Maybe I stuck around to smother you with a pillow.”

 

Eames shrugs. “You had the chance, and you didn’t. We’re engaged now.”

 

“You don’t even know my name!” Arthur throws his hands up, and he knows this conversation is insane because Eames is hurt, and he should be worried about his memory loss, but all Arthur can think about is how Eames took one look at him and decided to keep him. Again.

 

“I’ll name you then, shall I?” Eames squints, his eyes tracking up and down Arthur’s body, and Arthur knows he’s seeing the hundred little quirks no one else would see. Because he’s Eames, and Eames never misses anything.

 

“Milo,” Eames says with certainty.

 

Arthur scrunches up his eyes. “Milo? No, that’s terrible.”

 

“Hmm, Sebastian.”

 

“I honestly don’t know if that’s better or worse,” Arthur tells him.

 

“You’re picky,” Eames remarks. “Archer.”

 

Arthur stares at Eames in shock because it’s close. So close that for a moment he thinks Eames actually says his name.

 

“Oh, that was close, was it?”

 

Before Arthur can respond, a nurse comes bustling through the door, exclaiming excitedly when she sees Eames is awake.

 

“Have you met my fiancé?” Eames asks her, motioning to Arthur.

 

“Oh, I thought you were already married?” she says, frowning at Arthur.

 

Eames’ face lights up and the grin he sends Arthur is so bright and happy it takes Arthur’s breath away.

 

“We are, he’s having some issues with his memory,” Arthur explains, unable to keep a smile from his own face as Eames watches him.

 

“That’s to be expected, but it should right itself soon. Keep talking to him, tell him about your life, the names of his friends, things like that. The doctor will be in shortly to check on him.” 

 

“You’ve been holding out on me, darling,” Eames says teasingly as soon as the nurse has gone.

 

“I simply wanted you to remember on your own.” Arthur tugs at his cuffs again.

 

“How long?”

 

“Six years,” Arthur confesses.

 

“And we’re doing well?” Eames asks, unable to hide his worry, even when he can’t remember their life together.

 

Arthur smiles. “Yes, we’re wonderful.”

 

“Excellent. Well, if I don’t get my memory back, I look forward to relearning you, my love. Carnally, of course,” Eames tells him with a wink.

 

Arthur nods. “Of course.”

 

“Now, there’s just one more question, and it is very important.”

 

Arthur rests his forearms on his knees. “What is it?”

 

Eames rolls towards him, hanging over the bedrail to take Arthur’s hand in his. “If I can’t have a kitten, may I please have a puppy?”

  
  
  
  



End file.
